During operation of a technical installation, as a result of the changing operating conditions over time, a series of operating states arise that must be checked as to whether they are varying within acceptable tolerances and hence are to be classified under normal operation, or whether operating states are occurring, not least occasionally, that put at risk the operation of the installation and/or the operating staff and/or the environment.
Thus is it necessary, in particular in a power station, that at least in the event of doubt the relevant operating states of the installation are assessed by an expert so that countermeasures can be taken in good time should there be an unacceptable and/or unwanted operating state. The expert advice must be available quickly, since it may determine how the power station is subsequently operated and any risk needs to be ruled out. Thus a short response time to any unacceptable and/or unwanted operating states of the technical installation that arise is essential, because this affects operational reliability and safety in the broadest sense and/or the costs of operating the technical installation.
In order to assess the operating state of a technical installation, in particular a power station, evaluation information in the form of operating data is investigated using suitable means, for example by means of analysis tools created for the purpose that can be used to draw conclusions from the operating data as to whether and/or when and/or to what extent intervention in the operation of the technical installation is necessary. For example, characteristic values representing certain operating states and varying within certain limits for normal operation can be derived from the operating data for this purpose. Using the quantity of the characteristic value concerned, an expert can then draw conclusions as to possible operating states that in particular vary outside an acceptable operating range of the technical installation and hence require a response.
At present, in order to collate and analyze the information, an expert entrusted with the assessment of the operating state of a technical installation must either go physically to the technical installation or establish a connection to the technical installation, for example via a remote data communications link, in order to obtain the information required.
The expert receives the operating data needed for assessing the operating state from the technical installation itself and/or from a database of the technical installation control system; however, the tools, in particular software tools, needed for determining the characteristic values, for example, must be available at the point where the expert is located, for example by being installed directly in the technical installation, by being brought there with him or by being installed on the computer from which the expert has established remote data communications with the technical installation.
“Remote expert centers” are also known in some cases, in which the infrastructure needed by experts, in particular computer and software support tools, is available for performing a diagnosis of operating states of technical installations. Remote data communications can be established from this remote expert center to generally a plurality of technical installations, so that extensive diagnostics systems do not need to be installed in each of the technical installations. Nevertheless, at least one suitable expert must be in the remote expert center to produce a diagnosis, because the necessary support tools are only available there. Keeping experts and/or expert knowledge in such a center inevitably has the disadvantage of high costs however.